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摘 要

本文选择了四篇具有代表意义的海明威中短篇小说，并结合几种不同方法来研究海明威小说中的女性角色, 这篇论文主要回答了以下的问题：

1. 根据对本文选取的海明威四篇代表作品的分析，海明威小说中的女性形象是怎样的？
2. 这项研究（对当今社会的女性）具有怎样的理论参考价值？

这篇论文首先对选择分析的四篇代表作品进行了一个简单的介绍说明，然后又分析对比了不同学者对于海明威小说中女性的观点，接下来我又选择了这四篇小说中的很多细节而来证明我的观点。

通过不同的方法对其中女性角色的分析，我们可以得出下列的答案。首先，很多学者对海明威作品中的女性角色持有否定态度，并且根据海明威的小说认为他并不尊重女性，但有些人却认为恰恰想法（持积极态度，并认为这是对女性主义的启蒙）。在本文中，我将会找出四篇代表作品中的一些详细的证据证明无论她们是多么的富有、杰出、能干，依然改变不了她们社会地位地下的事实。她们总是需要取悦男性以获取幸福和快乐。其次，我认为作者写这些小说是希望给他所在的社会的女性的一些参考和教训。他希望女性都可以既学习海伦可以像男人一样具有打猎的勇气，同时也可以像《雨中的猫》里的女主角一样具有独立的意识。总体来看，海明威模糊的表达了其对女性（觉醒）的期望和肯定。

关键词： 女性角色 参考价值 态度

1．Introduction

1.1 Research background:

1.1.1 About Hemingway:

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) is a famous American writer and he was born on 21st July 1899 to Clarence Hemingway and Grace Hemingway at Oak Park near Chicago. He started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States was involved into the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was awarded by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospital. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution. He used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war as the background for his most ambitious novels. Ernest Hemingway is a war correspondent, big game hunter, angler, writer, and world celebrity, as well as of the 1954 Nobel Prize winner in literature.

1.1.2 About his works

Hemingway started his writing career as a reporter in Kansas City Star when he was 18. In 1923, his first work Three Stories and Ten Poems was published in Paris. In 1925, In Our Time and Cat in the Rain were published. In 1926, The Sun Also Rises was published. In 1927, Men with out women was published. In 1935, Green Hills of Africa and The Snows of Kilimanjaro were published. In 1940, For Whom the Bell Tolls was published. In 1952, The Old Man and the Sea was published. In 1987, The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway was published. In 1995, Everyman’s Library: The Collected Stories was published.

Here I am going to analyze the female characters through his four stories. I choose the four stories because the female figures in these stories are classical and typical, they represent different kinds of female characteristics in the American society, and it could be easier to understand and reach the conclusion by analyzing them.

1.2 About the four chosen works

1.2.1 Up in Michigan

This story mainly tells us a simple, naive and innocent young servant girl Liz, who loves a short, black and full-bearded man Jim Gilmore, and at the end of the story, was rudely take advantage of this man. Throughout the whole story, we could see an unrequited American girl who chases her love in an implicit and euphemistic way. Hemingway uses so many words to reveal her external characters and inner thoughts. This is the clue of the whole story. At the beginning of the story, Hemingway introduces that Jim is short and dark with big mustaches and big hands. On the contrary, Liz has good legs and always wears clean gingham aprons. However, Liz is the one who puts more efforts on building their relation. That’s a satire to some extent that we could see that females did not get appropriate status in the society. Then from the body of the story, we could learn that Liz loves Jim so much so that she is nearly in a crazy state. She loves his ways of doing everything, loves his mustache, white teeth and almost everything like this. When Jim goes out for hunting, she thinks about him all the day and night. Even when she is sleeping, Jim still appears in her dream. But unfortunately, Jim didn’t notice her very much. Her love was doomed to be a tragedy, and in a word, we could also know that Liz is a sentimental, tender and naive female character.

1.2.2 Cat in the Rain

It tells us a simple story, it is about a young American couple. They spent their holiday in Italy at the hotel. There were little conversation between them; days seemed to be so boring. In a rainy day, the madam stood by the window looking out. All of a sudden, she found a cat under the green desk on the rain. Probably out of sympathy, she decided to come downstairs to catch it, but her husband seemed to have no interest for that and just kept reading instead of taking much notice of her. When she went past the office of the hotel, she had a brief conversation with the shopkeeper and then she started to appreciate the man. After that, she continued to catch the cat with an umbrella and with the help of a maid. However, the cat has already disappeared. Then she returned back to her room depressingly, and spoke to her husband that she would like to pull her hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back, and that she wanted a kitty, and so on and so forth. But the husband did not agree with her, nor did he pay any attention to her. At the moment, the door was knocked by someone, and the maid stood in the doorway with the cat.

1.1.3 Hills like White Elephants

It shows how Hemingway started to subvert the traditional endings of his short story. With his stories written during 1922-1927, he frequently avoided the classic methods, tragic or comic, expected by his readers, in favor of endings that are ambiguous and sometimes ironic. It tells us a story, which is a conversation between a young man and a young woman in a railway station, which refers to an abortion surgery. (The author did not point out that is an abortion surgery, but it’s easy to guess) The story happened in the time when they are waiting for the train. The story was primarily constructed by the lovers’ conversation. In this story, the female does not have her own ideas, so she was doomed to be a tragic figure.

1.1.4 The Snows of Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro is said to be the highest mountain in Africa, which is 5895 meters high and was covered by snow all the year. Harry, a poor writer, felt tired and disappointed in the complicated social background, and kept recalling the memory of his entire life. And rich widow Helen deeply fell in love with the man. She appreciated his talent, his writing, and anything related to him. Once when they were hunting in Africa, Harry was hurt by thistles and thorns, and they did not take much care of it. Then the wound got worse, and finally Harry died. This story shows us a rich, brave, independent and considerate female figure.

1.3 Need for the study

When we started to talk about female leading characters in novels, people might be referring to “Feminism”. As far as I am concerned, Feminism is a word, which was originally from France in last century. Through a long period of time, many scholars made lots of researches about western females in their study through the famous writers’ stories, and here I want to follow their steps, and make a deep research about females in Ernest Hemingway’s stories. In my opinion, as an important part in human being’s society, females play the significant roles in mankind’s development; I hope females in modern society could benefit from positive viewpoints of this research and live a well-off life.

In the four stories I selected, Hemingway showed us different figures, such as a weak and vulnerable figure in Cat in the rain, a sentimental and implicit female in Up in Michigan, a tragic female in Hills like White Elephants, and a independent and considerate female in The Snow of Kilimanjaro. In my opinion, by these female figures, the author hopes to arouse the public’s attention to females’ social status.

2. Literature review

• 1. Previous study on females in Hemingway’s stories

2.1.1 Positive attitude towards the female characters

In Far More Implied Than Expressed---Analysis of Cat in the Rain by Ernest Hemingway, Song yuankang（2000） had an opinion that even though this story is simple in plot, the protagonist made a deep impression on the reader with her dissatisfaction of marriage and eagerness of breaking the mind’s fetter. When Up in Michigan（1923） was published for the first time, it had an intense response from many critics and was regarded as trash. Some presses even didn’t plan to publish it, but some scholars think that it’s exactly the origin of Hemingway’s feminist consciousness. In Cat in the Rain, we could see personal terms changes from “the wife” or “the American wife” to “the American girl”, from “the cat” to “a cat”. Song thought that the female wanted to change her situation and became a different person, but she needed a power, so she went out looking for the cat. Here the cat is the symbol of this power. So at the end of the story, she finally got the cat, from Song’s point, it indicates that the author indirectly showed his support of this female.

As far as many readers were concerned, Hills like White Elephants is an abortion story, which was in the process of being written as early as 1927. According to Robert McAlmon (1938), the seed of the story had been planted in Hemingway’s memory for years earlier in conversation. In Appreciation Reading of Selected Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, Zhang Yibo(2013) and Liu Xiuli(2013) think that the story is full of symbolic means, for example, “White elephant”, in English, refers to useless and meaningless things, and here it indicates the unborn infant as well as the young lovers. “The beer” in the story indicates a feeling of fresh, a little hard, but still a little sweet, just like the girl said: “Everything tastes of licorice. Especially all the things you’ve waited so long for, like absinthe.” The train station was called “junction” at the beginning of the story, it supported the theme of the story. From the whole story, there are many words such as “brown”, “dry”, “no trees” and so forth, they all indicate the ending of their love. But, at last the young girl was sitting at the table and smiled at him, which shows that she accepted the truth, and also indicated a positive attitude towards the future life. This is what the author really appreciates, and to some extent, the image of this female figure in this story is similar to Hemingway’s stereotypical "hard man" image, she’s a grace under pressure.

• • 1. Negative attitude towards the female characters

Some people who are represented by Edmund Wilson thought that Hemingway had prejudice against females; They criticized Hemingway as a Malechauvinism, and they think that in the Snows of Kilimanjaro, Hemingway strongly showed his hostility attitude towards women (2003). Meanwhile, some scholars think that it shows an American female in the snow background that is helpless and lack of status even if Helen is so rich that could live a luxurious life. Close to the western summit, there is a dried and frozen carcass of a leopard; no one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude. The whole story never mentioned the leopard again, and many people think it indicates Harry’s unfulfilled dream (Li Zhonghua, 2000). Before she met Harry, Helen had had some different lovers, and she was still lonely. Different from the female figures in Hemingway’s other stories, this female is rich and noble, to some extent, she also had a similar tragic life. In a man-centered society where the male dominate and control everything, women can only seek help from men.

• 1. Purpose of my study on females in Hemingway’s stories

We have learned that different kinds of female figures in Hemingway’s stories, and then comparing with other critics and commenter, we could have a deeper realization of their characters. Whatever people thought of it, what I need to do is make some theoretical reference value after the analysis. For example, Liz is a tender, implicit and shy girl, but after our analysis of her tragic ending, we could reach a point that she should be more courageous and confident towards Jim. That’s the purpose of my study.

3. Four classic female characters in Hemingway’s stories

3.1 Female characters in Hemingway’s stories

As we know, Hemingway was a famous writer and left us a lot of famous stories. Some of the stories were written for tough guys, and some of the stories described the female images and characters. Considering Hemingway’s own life experiences, we could find that all the female images in his stories were constructed from his real life. Therefore, we also need to learn more about Hemingway’s own experiences so that we could have a better understanding of the females in his stories. In Hemingway’s stories, we could see a simple and kind-hearted girl in Up in Michigan, a rich and brave lady in The Snow of Kilimanjaro, and as the major characters in all the four stories under discussion are the representatives of the females in the American society whose characters are dependent or independent, timid or free.

3.1.1 Naive girl in Up in Michigan

Liz is a sentimental, tender and naive female character in low social status. For this work, Stein (1923) who is Hemingway’s teacher in his early life held a negative attitude towards this work. However, Edmund Wilson(1925) regarded it as a famous work. Zheng Hansheng(2008) and Wang hui(2000) both had a viewpoint in their own works that Liz may be the first tough female figure, because she could face her ordinary or even unfortunate fate with a positive attitude, but I had a reverse viewpoint. Firstly, in this story, Liz is the female leading role, but we could not find any identity information about her. All we could know is that she is a servant and work for Smith’s. Even if she was evaluated as a neatest girl, had good legs and always wore clean gingham aprons. It just helped her be noticed by short Jim. So her first character is that she has no identity in low social status. “She held herself stiff because she was so frightened and did not know anything else to do and then Jim…” , Liz loves Jim very much, when Jim go on the deer hunting trip Liz thought about him very much. And we could see that “It was terrible while he was gone. She could not sleep well out of thinking about him but she found that it was fun to think about him too…” Therefore, we could learn that she is a naive and shy girl.

3.1.2 A weak and vulnerable wife in Cat in the Rain

The Female in this story is independent in spirit but dependent on substance, is full of love but lacking in social status. In an overall viewpoint, it’s a weak and vulnerable figure.

In Cat in the Rain, all we know is that she is an American wife. “George was not listening. He was reading his book” so I think it’s a signal of having no identity and having only low social status. Then the female said “ I wanted it so much…I wanted that poor kitty …”， she liked the cat so much, but she did not take any more actions to get it without her husband’s agreement after she failed to find the cat in the rain. So we have enough reason to believe that she is also a coward and weak-minded person. Next, the female is also sentimental, because the story stated that “She liked the hotel-keeper”, “She liked the deadly serious way he received any complains. She liked his dignity…”. In Cat in the rain, some scholars think Hemingway use a narrative method to introduce characters, to describe plots. In the story, there are many descriptions like “public garden”, “war monument”, “Empty Square”, these scholars think they are reflection of an enlightenment (Jiang Hongxia, 2001), but I think it could not show anything to cover up the low status of the female.

At the beginning of the story, the author just gives a rough introduction to the two figures, but pays more attention to the scenery. There is a public garden and war monuments, and there are big palms and green benches. All of these could reveal that they live in an elegant environment. Generally speaking, a woman living in such a good place will feel very comfortable and happy, but the wife does not. She just stands at the window looking out, and what she sees is just a kitty. She likes it more than any other beautiful scenery. From this point, we could see that she is a loving woman. At the same time, we could also regard her as an independent girl in spirit because she did not adapt herself into such a comfortable environment. On the other hand, when she wants the cat, the husband said that he would help catch it but did not take any action. Then she went downstairs to find and to catch the cat. She failed. Here we could see she is weak and vulnerable. From the body of the story, we could see that the hotel owner was always humble to the female, but I think it’s just because of her husband. Most importantly, at the end of the story, the hotel owner helps catch the cat and sends to her room. In my opinion, when the female go out for the cat, the hotel owner might be go upstairs to ask for the husband’s advices. After receiving the permission, the owner then helps catch the cat. As we learn from the story, the hotel owner was still keeping reading, but at the end he put his book aside when he said coming, I think it’s under his expectation. Even if he did not help her, it is still because of him that the female could get the cat. Therefore, on the other hand, we could reach a conclusion that the female is really in a low social status.

3.1.3 Tragic female in Hills like White Elephants

According to the conversation, we could also know that they are talking about an abortion surgery. Even if the young man seems to ask for the girl’s opinion, the girl does not have a better choice if the young man does not want the child, because she is pregnant. The man also said that “I don’t care anything about it”. So here we could see the low social status and identity of the poor girl. The girl also says “If I do it you’ll be happy and things would be like they were…Would you please please please please please please please stop talking? ”We could see the girls emotion is not stable, To some extent, it’s an embodiment of coward and dependent. In this story, we could hardly find evident words to prove that the female is sentimental, but we could get it from the attitude of the surgery, “If I do it you won’t ever worry…I don’t care about me.” Some scholars think this phenomenon results from the long-term, historical and social factors. Therefore, it doesn’t have a good solution (Zhen wei, 2011). I think all of these were caused by her weak character.

At the beginning of their conversation, the man ordered some beer to drink, and the female did not refuse and even tried some new beer, so we could see that the girl was open-handed and positive to life. Meanwhile, when the man drank beer, the female, however, just looked off at the line of the hills, and talked about the abortion surgery, we could learn that she was gloomy and preoccupied. Then throughout the whole parts of their conversation, we could find that the female was keeping questioning and the man always flickering, finally she still did not make a decision, and so we could learn that the female is a softhead. From all the factors mentioned above, the female was doomed to be a tragic figure.

3.1.4 Brave and considerate female in The Snow of Kilimanjaro

This story shows us a rich, brave, independent and considerate female figure.

In The Snow of Kilimanjaro, it’s really hard to have an opinion that the female leading role is in a low social status and has no identity because she is so wealthy. But from another point of view, she lost her husband and children, and nobody really cared about her. In this story, the female is also brave enough to go for hunting, so it seems that she is not a weak-minded female, either. From the whole story, we could know that the female has changed several male lovers, and she is a rich and amorous lady. But by contrast with the other three stories, Helen is a different female, she could do something bravely that even many males could not do. Therefore, I think it is an awakening of women awareness.

Helen is a considerate female, Throughout their conversation, we could find a fact that the man seemed do not care about his wound. However, Helen cared so much and was willing to do anything to help relieve Harry of his pain, even if it’s in vain. From this point, we could regard her as a considerate female. Then as the plot develops, Helen goes out for hunting. Learning from the story, A conclusion could be reached that she enjoys hunting and horsing very much, and she is a brave female. Then during this period of time, Helen looked after him carefully, such as going hunting for him, preparing dinner for him, being patient with his bad temper and so forth. Meanwhile, her husband had died when she was still a comparatively young woman and for a while she had devoted herself to her two just-grown children, who did not need her and were embarrassed at having her about, to her stable of horses, to books, and to bottles. From all of these, we could learn that she is not only a considerate female but also an independent figure.

For the four females, it could be classified to two types. For one type, female is weak in mind but strong in their action, such as Helen and Liz. For another type, they are almost completely different, they are tough in mind but no efficient actions, the American wife and Jig.

4. Conclusion

4.1 Major characters in the four stories

According to the contents mentioned above, the characters could be summarized as follows:

In Up in Michigan, we saw a sentimental, tender and implicit young female. She had a fiery heart for love, but not brave enough to tell Jim. In Cat in the Rain, we knew a weak and vulnerable American wife, she had her own thoughts, but not have the ability to chase what she loved. In Hills like White Elephants, we see a pregnant female, she wants to give birth to her baby, but her boyfriend does not accept that. In snows of Kilimanjaro, we could find a brave, independent, and considerate female, she almost has everything she wants except for a loved one.

From all of these females, we could learn that they have a common point that their ending is tragic.

4.2 Theoretical referential value

In By-line Ernest Hemingway: selected Article and Dispatches of Four Decades(1998), Hemingway once gave her opinion to females that under the same strict and rigid principle, males could live more comfortably than females. From the factors mentioned above, we could see that they all have a tragic ending, even for Helen, she is so rich that happy life seems to spontaneously comes to her, but the fact is in reverse, she lost her husband, lost her children, and even lost Harry. So I think that the most important factor to a female is a strong heart, which means you need to have your own thoughts, and are brave enough, courageous enough to pursue what you want.

5. Works Cited

Dai,Guiyu[戴桂玉],海明威小说中的妇女及其社会性别角色.《英美文学研究论丛》

2000.

Edmund Wilson, Would And The Bow: Seven Studies In Literature. 1997.

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